EASTHAMPTON – The Easthampton City Council conducted a lengthy discussion about the city’s Community Preservation Act (CPA) Emergency Rental Relief Program during their March 17 meeting.

According to Jamie Webb, assistant planner for the city, the program was created about a year ago to combat evictions in Easthampton due to factors caused by the coronavirus pandemic. CPA funds were identified to prevent these evictions, as the state provided municipalities with information about how to run rental assistance programs using CPA funding.

After attending some webinars, the city sent out a few requests for proposals in June asking for hiring a program administrator to implement the rental relief program. After receiving no responses from those requests, the city opted to try again in October 2020, and received two responses. Community Action Pioneer Valley was ultimately chosen to manage the program.

“Community Action needed more time to hire more staff, and we needed some time to finish the contract, and to actually set up some of the details with how the program will be implemented,” said Webb. By the end of January, Community Action began accepting applications for the program.

Janna Tetreault, the program administrator for the relief program, said that Community Action has received around 92 calls from Easthampton residents since Feb. 1, with 37 percent of those calls involving housing questions and concerns surrounding rent. Of the 92 calls, 29 people have set up appointments, but Tetreault said she was unsure what every appointment was for.

“Our current application pool is 22 households,” said Tetreault, with regard to how many Easthampton residents have applied for the rental relief program. “At this point, three applications have been approved for totaling about $5,803.” One application has been denied, and one application has been withdrawn because the person was able to resolve the rent issue on their own. Seventeen applications are currently in a state of process, meaning the application is waiting to be reviewed by a landlord or other entity for approval or denial.

An application can be accepted if the person is a renter and if they are behind at least one month on rent. The resident also has to be income eligible and there has to be a COVID-19-related reason for why someone is behind on their rent. Applicants also have to submit their bank statements and pay stubs, according to Tetreault.

“People are screened before they made an appointment,” said Tetreault. “We are looking to make sure that people don’t have the resources already to resolve the issue on their own.” If someone is living under the poverty line and does not have a bank account, then Community Action will still consider them for the program. The resident just has to sign a self-certification that proves they do not have a bank account.

The money from the CPA program will directly go to the landlord because they are the ones that normally receive someone’s rent, according to Tetreault. The landlord has to accept an agreement for the payment of a rent for a certain amount of months.

“The process generally takes about four to five weeks for an application to get approved,” said Tetreault. “We’re about six weeks into program.”

Out of the $300,000 appropriated for this program, less than $5,000 has been used for advertising and getting the proposal out, and $124,000 has been used for a pilot program. As of press time, the city has not been billed yet for planning assistance payments or for Community Action’s work to administer the program, according to Webb.

There were some concerns from city councilors about how the qualifications are determined by Community Action and the city. Many councilors were not happy with some of the nuances provided by the state.

City Councilor Thomas Peake explained how he talked to constituents who live with multiple roommates in an apartment. According to Peake, there was a concern from these constituents about how there could be a lot of people within an apartment who fall within the income guidelines for the rental relief program, but are not technically eligible for the program itself because other roommates can make rent.

“Roommates are definitely eligible for the program,” responded Tetreault. “But if all of the roommates are on the same lease and are responsible collectively for the rent, then we are asking all of them to apply together.” If they each have their own lease, then they will each be individually assessed, according to Tetreault.

If, for example, four people were living on the same lease, then they would need to meet the four-person income limit together, even if they are not a family. “I’d be interested to see if there’s any lever we could pull there,” said Peake. “That just seems like it’s kicking a lot of people out of eligibility. No poor person lives in Easthampton by themselves that pays market rent. That’s just not a reality for people here.”

Councilor Owen Zaret meanwhile brought up a scenario where someone applies for this program after being one month behind on rent, but the renter is then two to three months behind by the time their application is approved. Zaret wanted to know if people would be accommodated for that lost time.

“It’s definitely taken into consideration,” said Tetreault, with regard to this issue. “Staff are working with these folks every other day for those four to six weeks.”

The pilot program that is under way will uncover some of these issues and provide ways in which the city can adjust its rental relief program. Easthampton has to follow state guidance for the program. The city will look into necessary changes through the CPA if they can. Community Action will be working with Residential Assistance for Families in Transition (RAFT) and other funding resources if certain residents exceed what Easthampton can provide for money.